Google Pixel Buds

Despite the promise of helpful voice assistant features, with its Pixel Buds, Google combines an uncomfortable design, mediocre performance, and a high price tag for an unappealing pair of wireless headphones.

Pros

Cons

Fit is a bit loose.
Translation software might have trouble with accents.

Bottom Line

The Google Pixel Buds are wireless earphones that can potentially translate anything you say into another language.

16 Nov 2017Sascha Segan

Google produces some excellent products, including, for example, the Chromecast streaming devices and the Pixel phone lines. The company has also put forth some clunkers like the Nexus Q media hub. On paper, the Google Pixel Buds sound like a simple, appealing set of wireless headphones with innovative integration of Google Assistant and even Google Translate features (with the right Google phone). Alas, the design, performance, and feature implementation result in a product that's much closer to the Nexus Q than a Chromecast or a Pixel. And at $159, they're too expensive.

Design

With a simple design, the Pixel Buds look incredibly smooth, with round, Google 'G'-emblazoned caps reminiscent of the Google Chromecast. They're available in black, blue, or white versions, all of which feature a black fabric-wrapped cable between the earpieces. Each earpiece has two small contacts for use with the included charging case, and the back of the right earpiece is touch-sensitive for tap gestures. You can tap to play or pause music, or hold down on the right earpiece to use Google Assistant if you're connected to an Android phone with it installed. The touch-sensitive takes up the entire back panel of the right earpiece, so it's easy to accidentally trigger it when you're adjusting the earphones or taking them out of your ears.

The Pixel Buds are actually earbuds, not in-canal earphones like the vast majority of our favorite wireless in-ear headphones. The design is similar to Apple AirPods, with nearly circular buds with small grilles over flat extensions that, when inserted, direct sound into your ear canal. There are no silicone or foam earpieces to ensure a snug fit. The only concession to comfort is a loop formed by the cable. The loop fits in the curve of your ear to keep the earpiece in place, and you can push the cable into the earpiece about an inch to make the loop larger or smaller. All of this amounts to earphones that fit loosely at best, and don't form a seal to ensure that your ears get a consistent sound. It's a minimalist and attractive design that doesn't work nearly as well as the tried and true silicone-eartips-and-fins structure.

A vaguely square-shaped, fabric-covered charging case lets you keep the Pixel Buds secure and charged when not in use. We don't often see charging cases like this with tethered wireless earphones; they're usually reserved for wire-free earphones like the Bose SoundSport Free and Jabra Epic Air. The case has two recesses for the earphones, with magnets that keep the contacts aligned when in the case. The cable wraps around the edge of the case, then tucks inside to close, staying shut with additional magnets. A USB-C port on the back charges the case and earphones via the included USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable.

According to Google, the Pixel Buds can last up to five hours on a charge, which is a bit low for non-wire-free earphones. However, the charging case can hold multiple charges for a claimed 24 hours of listening.

Google Assistant

The handiest aspect of the Pixel Buds is Google Assistant integration. If the connected phone has Google Assistant, you can set up the Pixel Buds to give you access to the voice assistant without even touching your phone. Once paired and set up, all you have to do is tap and hold on the right earpiece and state your command. When you release, Google Assistant will respond.

Google Assistant on the Pixel Buds lacks the hands-free activation using the wake phrase "OK Google," but it otherwise functions identically to Google Assistant on a Google Home or Home Mini. You can tell it to play music from a variety of sources including Google Play Music and Spotify, check your calendar, make calls, and answer questions about weather, sports, news, or general trivia. It's a genuinely useful assistant that doesn't have quite the selection of third-party skills as Alexa, but is much better at handling natural language.

Of course, it's an assistant that's on your Android phone regardless of whether you have Pixel Buds. You can use Google Assistant by tapping the right earpiece, or you can just set your phone to wake up to "OK Google," and use everything that way. And you can use it with any wireless earphones or speaker, just without the tap-and-talk part of the Pixel Buds.

Google Translate

Besides Google Assistant, the Pixel Buds have another unique trick that sets them apart from other wireless earphones: Google Translate integration. It sounds very useful at first, but its execution is so awkward that simply using your phone ends up being a more compelling option. To start, the translation function only works if the Pixel Buds are paired with a Pixel or Pixel 2 phone (or their plus-size versions). The other Google Assistant features will work with any paired Android phone that supports Google Assistant, but if you want to translate anything through the earphones you'll need a Pixel phone. This is a perplexing limitation, considering how poorly translation is integrated with the earphones.

To translate a conversation, tap and hold on the right earpiece and say "Translate a conversation in (language)." This opens the Google Translate app on your phone to the audio translation mode. After this, hold the right earpiece and speak, and your phone will speak the translated phrase. The stock Google Translate voice will serve as your translator, putting your words into your language of choice.

To hear the other side of the conversation in your language, the speaker must press the microphone button on the app under the language to be translated. This is where the system becomes extremely awkward. You press the earbud and speak, you get translated. The other speaker presses your phone and speaks, and they get translated. And you go back and forth, pressing your respective device as you talk.

Google Translate has an automatic conversation translation feature. By pressing the microphone icon in the middle of the app, between the microphone icons for the two languages to be translated, the app will start listening for speech in both languages and translate them on the fly. The problem is that this mode is disabled with the Pixel Buds. If a headset is connected, you can't have automatic translation. Both parties need to hold down the earbud or one of the icons on the phone when they speak.

This isn't only very awkward, it completely negates any usefulness the Pixel Buds might offer in translating what you say. They don't listen to what you're saying unless you hold them, so you can't simply get translated on the fly as you talk. And when you do speak, the translation goes through the phone speaker anyway, so you don't even get the choice to hear or read the translation and attempt to say it yourself as part of the conversation. And none of this integration explains why the Pixel Buds could possibly require a Pixel or Pixel 2 phone to function instead of any other Android phone that can run the Google Translate app. The only possible benefit the Pixel Buds offer when translating is that you can put your finger on the earbud instead of your phone screen. Everything else is identical to or restricted in comparison with using only your phone, or your phone and any other wireless earphones.

Performance

Despite awkward design and strange feature implementation, the Pixel Buds put out some pretty solid, bass-forward audio. Unfortunately, the higher frequencies aren't sculpted enough for a balanced sound, and the unsealed earbud design gives most music a slightly hollow effect.

To the Buds' credit, they handle deep bass pretty well. The bass synth and kick drum in our low-end test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," have plenty of resonance without distorting at maximum volume. They won't rattle your head and don't border on unsafe with the volume cranked up, but it's an appreciable amount of low frequency response.

The upright bass in Miles Davis' "So What" has plenty of low-end response to give it a full, resonant sound, and the piano sounds suitably bright to stand out in the mix. The strings don't have much high frequency clarity to give them texture, though, and the horns lack a high-end edge to define them against the other instruments.

Schaffer the Darklord's "The Other Devil" is a drums-heavy nerdcore hip-hop track that further demonstrates the Pixel Buds' very bass-heavy balance. The backbeat gets so much low frequency presence that it stands out in the mix against STD's vocals, both the naturally spoken and artificially pitched-up lines. The drums get significant emphasis in the lows and low-mids, which makes them settle alongside Schaffer's lower voice. The higher frequencies aren't as sculpted as they should be to balance out the bass, so Schaffer's pitched-up voice on the track sounds softer than his normal voice and the drums, and that lack of treble makes his normal voice sound a bit less natural and textured than it should. Be wary if you want to listen to rap and prefer the rhymes over the drums.

Conclusion

Almost everything about the Google Pixel buds sounds really interesting. Wireless headphones with a minimalist design, Google Assistant and Google Translate integration, and a battery-equipped charging case. Unfortunately, what is appealing on paper doesn't work in execution here, with uncomfortable earpieces, a lack of high frequency sculpting, and awkward, redundant voice assistant and translation features. None of the smart, unique aspects of the Pixel Buds work well enough to justify using them over just using the same apps on your Android phone, and their audio performance falls well short of what you should expect from a $150 pair of non-wire-free earphones.

While none of them work with Google Assistant or Google Translate in quite the same way (though Google Assistant will still talk to you through your headphones' audio on all of them), the similarly priced Jaybird X3 and the Shure SE215 Wireless feel and sound much better than the Pixel Buds. And if you want to go completely wire-free and keep a charging case, the JLab Epic Air also offers superior audio performance and sealed in-ear fit.

Google Pixel Buds

Bottom Line: Despite the promise of helpful voice assistant features, with its Pixel Buds, Google combines an uncomfortable design, mediocre performance, and a high price tag for an unappealing pair of wireless headphones.

About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.

Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed to the Frommer's series of travel guides and Web sites for more than a decade. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite ... See Full Bio